The other day my iMac decided something was wrong and I had to hold the power button for 5 seconds until it shut off and then it powered itself back up. Since the FCP 7 has been acting very strange. First it asks for a scratch disk that hasn't been linked to FCP for at least 4 years. When going to right click on an edit to add a dissolve or something you have to first click it then right click it. This was never the case and when I import an image it shows up in the negative. Any ideas as to what happened and how I can fix it. I am using a 27inch iMac that I got in Dec of 2011.

First thing to do when these sort of problems arise is to trash FCP prefs, if that doesn't fix it then do a hard drive repair permissions. I find Onyx (Google it) very useful to do a full system repair and tune up.

Thanks Dave. The files I am suppose to delete aren't their either lol. Another problem I have just found out about it the fact that when I send a project to compressor and hit submit it just sits there thinking and doesn't compress the file. I think I have to do an uninstall but when I got FCP7 it was an upgrade online and I don't have the original hard drive that it happened on.

I'm guessing you're using Lion 10.7 - the FCP files to delete are in the Library folder - hidden for user access by Apple!

Use this info to 'un-hide' the Library folder and delete the FCP prefs etc:

18 ways to view the ~/Library folder in Lion | Macworld (http://www.macworld.com/article/1161156/view_library_folder_in_lion.html)


The files to delete are detailed here:

Final Cut Pro 7: Troubleshooting Basics (http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1846)

OR

You can use Prefs Manager (free) from here:

Preference Manager - Trash and Manage Preferences for Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid and Adobe Premiere (http://www.digitalrebellion.com/prefman/)

Thanks I'll give that a try and see how it goes. there is obviously so much I don't know about FCP